Rand Paul gains ground in latest poll

Presently, Paul garners at 5.6 percent of the vote, with Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz just behind him at 5.3 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively.

While the three “outsider” candidates, Donald Trump (30 percent), Ben Carson (12.9 percent), and Carly Fiorina (10.8 percent) remain at the top of the pack for now, Paul’s gain, particularly in light of Scott Walker and Rick Perry dropping out, is a sign that interest in his campaign could be increasing. Unusually, a specific margin of error was not provided in the Reuter’s survey.

Paul polling ahead of his senate colleagues Rubio and Cruz is positive news for a candidate that many in the media have speculated would be the next to drop out. Paul is pulling triple duty currently between a presidential race, his senate reelection, and regular voting business in Washington. He has spent this week in the senate focused on battles over funding the government.

On Tuesday, Paul gave an impassioned speech against voting for a continuing resolution, chiding his senate colleagues for continuing what he called their “immoral” deficit spending, which is reliant upon borrowing one million dollars per minute. Cruz joined Paul in voting against the continuing resolution, while Rubio, who has missed nearly 30 percent of his senate votes, wasn’t present.

Due to his less-than-ideal fundraising and polling numbers in recent months, some news outlets have speculated that Paul’s upcoming trip to Kentucky to focus on his senate reelection is a death knell for his presidential ambitions. His campaign however, asserts that splitting Paul’s time in this fashion was always a part of the plan, and is charging ahead, happy with the latest polling news.

Said Paul’s campaign manager Chip Englander, “The Reuters poll tracks with our internal metrics that show Senator Paul moving up in the polls.” Englander further noted that this comes on the heels of Paul winning the largest Republican straw poll in the country, held in Michigan earlier this month.

Englander continued, “Senator Paul is generating huge crowds everywhere he goes as he talks about his plan to eliminate $500 billion in one year, pass a flat tax, and term limits to get rid of the career politicians.”

“This Reuters poll is just the latest in several metrics of the Senator’s strengths,” he added.

Whether Paul can continue to gain if the three non-politician frontrunners falter, remains to be seen. What we do know however, is that it’s not uncommon for outsider candidates to fade, similar to Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain in 2008.

Perhaps Paul, who was elected to the Senate as the ultimate outsider, can be successful playing a slow and steady game, or can at least show this is still anybody’s race to win.